Balance and the Working Mom

I have a free subscription to a wonderful magazine called Working Mother,which, as you might guess, is aimed at working mothers. The current issue has actress Amy Brenneman on the cover, and there’s an interview with her featured inside. The interview ends with Brenneman talking about her need to act and work, saying:

I can’t pretend that I don’t exist. I need to try to find some sort of balance for all of these needs. Knowing, of course, that it’s not going to be a perfect balance.

The end of her quote really struck me, probably because I tend to strive for perfection and then feel badly when I don’t achieve it. Balance, though, was always the key for me when I was worked at an office, and I’m finding that it’s still the key for me now that I’m working at home.

Because I’m realizing that even working at home, there simply isn’t time to do everything. I’ve been home for several weeks now, and I’ve barely scratched the surface on my list of things I’ve been wanting to get done for months.

I’m learning to prioritize my days, and especially to set realistic expectations of what can get done, and when. As I mentioned before, I’ve concluded that the stress of chasing every deal simply isn’t worth the savings, so I’m not shopping much more than I used to. And I’m learning to how to set aside time to blog, so that I can do my “job” here better for you. Because it’s all about balance 🙂

Comments

I'm struggling with not finding that perfect balance when it comes to our food and cooking. I have that perfectionist attitude of go for it all or don't bother… and it's just not possible when it comes to food due to time and budget constraints. It's been a struggle the past few months for me to accept what I consider mediocre result! 🙂 Hopefully soon I'll find that perfect imbalance.

@Camille – Are you talking about going organic/natural/etc., and not being able to do it completely? I don't know if this helps you, but for me, it was enough to realize that it's too hard to keep ALL the bad stuff out of my kids' bodies, but every little bit that I cut out is better than nothing at all. And shoot for an imperfect balance, not "perfect imbalance"! 🙂